"No, ma'am!" answered Sally, stretching her big eyes.
Lady Vincent sharply rang the bell.
The housekeeper promptly answered it, entering the room with an anxious countenance.
"Mrs. Murdock, is it true that my servant Katie has not been seen this morning?"
"Me leddy, she has nae been seen, puir auld bodie, sin' last e'en at the gloaming. She didna come to supper, though Katie isna use to be that careless anent her bit and sup, neither."
"Not seen since last evening at dusk!" exclaimed Claudia, in consternation.
"Na, me leddy, ne'er a bit o' her, puir bodie!"
"Go, Mrs. Murdock, and send the maids to look for her in every place about the castle where she is in the habit of going. And send the men outside to examine the premises. She may be taken with a fit somewhere, and die for want of assistance," said Lady Vincent, in alarm.
"And sae she may, me leddy! That is true enough," replied the dame, nodding her head emphatically as she hurried out on this mission.
Claudia sat down before her dressing-room fire and tried to wait the issue patiently. To be sure, she thought Katie might be in the stillroom, or the linen closet, or the bathroom, and there could be no reasonable cause of uneasiness. But why, then, did she not come up? Well, she might have been busy in some one of the above- mentioned places; and she might have been waiting until she thought her mistress should have got through breakfast; and perhaps she might come now very soon; might even enter at any moment. Such were the thoughts that coursed through Claudia's brain, as she tried to sit still before her little fire.